Ranocchia’s Deflection Enough to Earn Inter 3 Points over Cagliari

With the upcoming midweek Champion’s League battle with Bayern Munich looming, Inter approached Saturday’s match against Cagliari cautiously. They fielded a starting eleven void of some big names and played much of the match ‘with the handbrake on’, as one Inter reporter put it. In the end their tactics paid off as they went through 1-0 on an early Ranocchia goal.
It was just seven minutes in when Inter found the net. The goal came when a free kick was quickly taken – feeding Kharja streaking into the box. The Moraccan was denied once but regained the rebound, shooting again – this time into the net via a deflection off defender Ranocchia.

The Nerazzurri defended this goal lead for the rest of the match – earning a victory that situates them in third place, five points behind Milan and two behind Napoli.

Leonardo had this to say about the team’s ugly-but-effective performance, “A win is a win and there’s nothing wrong with winning like that. When you win playing badly that’s a good sign too. These three points are our bread.”

Inter face Bayern Wednesday in a rematch of last year’s Champion’s League final and continue their Serie A campaign on Sunday against Sampdoria.